Traditional retouching, where you make the body of a female model in a magazine thinner, has been common for a long time and is well known. Several studies indicates that showing ultra-thin images of female bodies in media can lower the body satisfaction of “ordinary” women which in some cases can lead to dangerous eating disorders. But in 2010 Swedish female magazine VeckoRevyn introduced a new type of retouching: Making some catwalk models bodies bigger instead, which we decided to call opposite retouching. This kind of retouching is aiming to widen the ideal picture that is sent out of how the female body should look like, and therefore having the readers reach a higher body satisfaction and becoming more at peace with the own body. This according to the magazine’s editor in chief, Linda Öhrn Lernstrom. In this attitude study we are looking to widen the knowledge about opposite retouching as a phenomenon by doing qualitative interviews with a number of young women in age 15 – 25 about their outlook on this new retouching. We later present as extensively as we can all these different outlooks, as well as by using Festinger’s social comparison theory, the social responsibility theory presented by Peterson and finally Hall’s representation theory, analyse these outlooks at a deeper level. Opposite retouching showed to be a controversial phenomenon among our respondents: Some of the women meant that the magazine takes their social responsibility and that this initiative is admirable, while some thought that it just makes some women’s body dissatisfaction even worse since even the thin catwalk models bodies weren’t “good enough”. The women in this study belong to the same age group and live in the same culture, which accordning to Hall is crucial for how one perceives media content, and had still such great differences of opinion when it came to the subject of opposite retouching. This indicates that this new retouching needs further investigation, and this attitude study strives to be a contribution to the research field.

Denna uppsats handlar om medelålders personers inställningar till robotar i vården. Utmaningen är att fylla gapet som skapas mellan ökandet av äldre och minskandet av vårdgivare. Robotar i hemmet ska fungera som ett hjälpmedel för äldre personer där de ska kunna bo själva längre och även känna självständighet. Uppsatsen undersöker hur personer mellan 40 och 60 år ser på robotar i hemmet och om de hade kunnat tänka sig ha en sådan hemma när de blir äldre. En jämförelse görs mellan 20-40 åringar från en tidigare studie som genomfördes för ca 15 år sedan och dagens 40-60 åringar för att ge svar på frågan: Har synen på robotar och inställningen till dessa förändrats över tid sedan den sista undersökningen år 1998? Vilka mönster finns det – likheter och skillnader? / This paper deals with the middle-aged attitude toward robots in healthcare. The challenge is to fill the gap created between increasing the elderly and the reduction of healthcare providers. Robots in the home to serve as an aid for the elderly where they can live independently for longer and even feel independence. The essay examines how people between 40 and 60 years looks at robots in the home and whether they are able to imagine having such at home as they get older. A comparison is made between 20-40 year olds and 40-60 year olds. How have perceptions of robots and attitude towards them changed over time since the last survey in 1998? What patterns are there – similarities and differences?